Opera Software has told the world it will soon "reinvent the web."
With a cryptic post to its website - at the url www.opera.com/freedom - the Norwegian outfit claims this epic feat will be accomplished in less than four days. "On June 16th at 9:00am (CEDT)," the post reads, "we will reinvent the web."
Opera freedom Opera boast …

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Last time I heard bullshit like this

we ended up the frickin' Segway. 'Revolutionize human tranportation'... the only thing they managed to do was make a new way to look like a douche. They are probably going to release Opera in Portable application form, something that has been done for years.

My money...

Prediction:

I've no idea what it's going to be, but I bet Ted Dziuba is already drafting his next "Fail" column as we speak, with blanks left for the as-yet-unknown-but-guaranteed-to-be-whalesong-induced-shite name of whatever-it-is.

Come to think of it, he probably has the template already, and just needs to fill in "Opera" for the victim's name.

Opera innovation

@captain: HAHA. Very true. I would defy anyone to explain where FF has innovated. Copy-cat add-ons do not count. Funny how everyone uses tabs and integrated search and speed dial screens created by Opera now. Hm.

http://www.opera.com/docs/history/#o40

- -

We'll see what Opera's next big thing is on Wed. (By the way, if you haven't tried Opera v10 Turbo on flaky public WIFI, you're wasting time with a slow browser.)

what is it ?

Re: Guess you didn't check the page source then?

Interesting, yes. Reading between the lines a bit, you could assume they are thinking of offering a web server for home PC's.

Assuming that is their plan, I don't think that it's a good idea for a wide range of reasons, not least that their new servers would be ran on 50:1 contended ADSL connections with a abysmal upstream connection speed. Add to that the fact that most of them will only be on for half of the day at best, and it looks like a nightmare waiting to happen if anybody actually uses them.

SaaS

Maybe they have decided to go the office live/google apps route and will release a web version of the browser. This would be great since all your favourites would remain on the server, and you could leave sessions open for later. I would also be very portable since, like google apps it would be available on any device with a browser...wait...um...web 2.0 rocks you hear me? ROCKS!

Who Knows.... whenever Life is Such AIMystery ..... For to Program.

Oh yes it will ........ and IT will Lead the Masses with Cloud Hosted Servers ..... Creating in CyberSpace the Command and Control of Computers and Communications and a Virtually IntelAIgent Operating System that No IDiot Savant or Sick Mind can Control/Steer/Influence/Pervert/Subvert ...... which will make a Very Pleasant Change from the Present Administrative Abominations

And these are not normal times, whenever XXXXtraOrdinary Information and Intelligence is Shared in a Instant Flash around the World at the Click of a Mouse that Roars, so expect much more of things being done dDifferently ...... and Remotely ...... and Virtually .... and from a Space which No One Owns but which is Easily Pwnd by a Few to Provide whatever IT and They and their Friends and Supporters would Need.

And whenever one has no Enemies does that IT Provide what Everybody Needs. Choose to be ITs Enemy and Everything Disappears and One Destroys Oneself ...... Tilting at Shadows and Quixotic Windmills.

And if that is not exactly the OperaTor Plan, then you at least know of another thing to look forward to.

And the Big Message in the Tale ....... Hollywood, get your Active Dream Machine Act together, Your Country and Administration Needs You...... like Yesterday, Man.

@ Tom Maddox

Innovate curve

Whether the innovation be worthy or not we will see. But at least Opera have been first to put into browsers stuff, like tabs, that all others browsers have followed.

So if it is worthy, expect to see Firefox, Chrome, Safari to follow in its next versions, latter this year and M$ to add it to its next version of its flagship and state of the art browser, the mighty Internet Exploder, sometime around 2015.

A title is required.

The obvious conclusion is that they are going to prematurely release Opera 10 so they can claim it was out before Firefox 3.5, just like they prematurely released Oper 9.5 so they could claim it was out before Firefox 3. While there have been plenty of development and alpla builds released, they have only had one beta of Opera 10 so far and there are numerous bugs and reversions still to be addressed, but that is par for the course for Opera. Opera 9.64 and 10 Beta 1 suffer from bugs that have been around since at least Opera 8.

Opera still doesn't get it

They always make all these lofty promises and new capabilities some almost work but for the most part their browsers continually dis-apoint because they adhere stubbornly to imaginary web rules which means Opera still won't open a majority of sites, ( can't browse) making it just more worthless software..

"I say ship windows to europe without a TCP/IP stack."

@ KTguju: Opera was NOT the first browser to use tabs!

It's a common misconception, but you really should learn to be less smug KTguju.

"Browser tabs were introduced by NetCaptor in 1998, later by IBrowse in 1999, then by MultiZilla (an extension for the Mozilla Application Suite[1]) and Opera in 2000, Mozilla Application Suite in 2001, Konqueror and Safari in 2003, Internet Explorer 7[2] in 2006 and Google Chrome in 2008."

how about a new name?

Im sure it's fair to say alot of people have at least tried Opera and switched back to whatever they were using. I have tried Opera numerous times over the years after being frustrated by FireFox and IE and always switch back to FireFox.

Perhaps Opera can contemplate a name change, may I suggest one? How about EpicFail, theres a cool name. Or perhaps they can switch the management of GM with Operas management and see how well the software guys can run the car maker and the car guys can build a better browser.

As with anything that's all hype it'll fail, if you make something people like they will use it, you can take a crap and market it with a 3 trillion advertising budget and at the end of the day I doubt many people will buy your crap.

Freedom as in teh Four Freedoms?

* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

@ Joe 21

You are right of course, Opera didn't bring in their Tabbed Browsing Interface until June 2000, so if you want to be pedantic, the term tabs was introduced by another browser, or at least by a skin for IE.

None of this changes the fact that you could have multiple pages showing within the same browser window, what anyone would consider to be tabbed browsing, and more than that, even have them displayed side by side, tiled or cascaded, something you can still do today in Opera that I have yet to see in any other browser, some 3 years before NetCaptor.

@ James Woods

+1 to your try and go back theory - I've tried Opera several times, usually when I get frustrated with Firefox's memory handling (one day, I realised it was stealing 1.5gb+ - even after removing all extensions except abp).... most recently I tried it last week, only thing that didn't feel cheap was speed dial... but this week safari just copied that functionality with a nice 3g effect gloss too.. so it's removed again and I'm using safari for a bit until I miss FF again.

Oh - another deal breaker with Opera was that for some reason it doesn't work well with Google Docs.. kept trying to move to the bottom of a doc to add new text and it was impossible, viewing was fine, editing was too flakey to be useful. Ah well... no doubt I will give them another try in the next version... sigh

"you can take a crap and market it with a 3 trillion advertising budget and at the end of the day I doubt many people will buy your crap"

Wonder how long before the Apple/M$ haters jump on that comment and start spewing their tiresome pointless venom... 3....2....1..... go

Still won't be mainstream

No matter what Opera does it will still remain a small niche market similar to those who use Linux. It doesn't really matter who got what from where as long as its the best browser available. Currently the best browser available is IE8 <<< former FF3 user for many years. Regardless no company is going to change or reinvent the web in 4 days.

Look at Google, they pretty much own it and well small companies like Opera can't compete with monsters like Google now can they. The next powerhouse browser to keep an eye on is Chrome and it's future advancements. They have all the money.

The Zeitgeist says...

this will be a sort of information server running on the machine you are currently using, and cache-ed by a number of servers in the communication path between you and your friends. The information will tell your friends where your are and what you are doing. You will be able to see information about close by friends, what the weather is like, what events and sites to see where your friend is.

It will NOT be a number of apps you buy, download and use independently, like last generation smartphones and iPhones. It will be a number of REST and semantic web like services, which your one browser (and editor) will display (and update), you may have to pay a small subscription to use some services.

@Rasczak

"None of this changes the fact that you could have multiple pages showing within the same browser window, what anyone would consider to be tabbed browsing, and more than that, even have them displayed side by side, tiled or cascaded, something you can still do today in Opera that I have yet to see in any other browser, some 3 years before NetCaptor."

Perhaps the reason no other browser offers this feature is because it's not useful?

The point is that tabs make opening many pages within the same browser window usable and Opera was NOT the first browser to implement this (btw IBrowse wasn't a skin).

2 words

@ amanfrommars1

IT in the Hands of the GODs ....... Hearts and Minds of InterNetworking Service Providers?*

"Still won't be mainstream ..... No matter what Opera does it will still remain a small niche market similar to those who use Linux. It doesn't really matter who got what from where as long as its the best browser available." ... By Kirk Posted Sunday 14th June 2009 11:42 GMT

Kirk,

The world we now live in is Virtually Controlled by Information and that Control of Power is always a small niche market for IT can be effectively wielded by so very few. And it DOES REALLY MATTER who got what from where [from whom] though, as dodgy information in a browser, and especially so in a mainstream/subsidised/supported market browser, is invariably politically linked to a corrupt and corrupting regime.

The best browser then, is one which displays to Searchers of Knowledge/CyberSpace Surfers ...... well it would be Clean Virgin Source as opposed to Toxic Waste/Sub Prime Collateralised Information Dumps, and that then turns the humble and innocuous browser into a Virtual Remote Proxy Operating System with SMARTer AIdDrivers ....... Advanced IntelAIgently designed Devices .... Global Operands.

* And only a question for Doubting Thomases and corrupt and corrupting regimes .... Fielding Folly in Arrogant Fool Administrations and Ignorant Slave Systems.

Clean Virgin Sourcerers then, should they favour a niche browser, would automatically extraordinarily render such a browser, Leading Power and Actual Control **?

** And only a question because a statement would be more difficult for both the arrogant and the ignorant to accept and believe.

@Law

I predict

Extending the current Operalink (which replicates much of your Opera settings/bookmarks etc between all your Opera installations), and making the entire session sync'd so you can carry on where you left off elsewhere. Full profile sync.

@ Joe21's continued ignorance

No not useful at all to compare two documents side by side if you wish. Maybe its just the way I work that makes being able to see things next to each other without having to constantly click to switch between them and memorize the exact layout that isn't useful.

Please explain how an MDI interface, as available in the first private Opera version and publicly from version 2, does not allow you to open many pages within the same window.

Your ignorance seems to know know bounds as you cannot actually read what I have said. Nowhere did I mention that iBrowse was a skin. I can't comment on its exact interface as I haven't used an Amiga in 15 years, before you say it had tabbed browsing, though around the same time that Opera had the equivalent.

Thanks for one thing though, I've finally been called a fanboy, although I'll think you'll find the term is fanboi. It's been my lifelong ambition to be insulted in such a way by someone with so little knowledge.

T1000

RE: @ Law

No I don't... I just can't afford the 1.5gb footprint of firefox at the minute as I'm running several VM's, with xcode, coda and VS open, but Opera doesn't work on sites I need it for (google docs is one example), I can't use IE on my mac (not that I would, not a fan), so really the only browser I can use for the minute without making my system grind to a half is safari... If you actually read the comment again, nowhere do I claim to be a fan or WANT to use safari! :)

Ignorance

Oh dear...

@Rasczak: What are you, 12? "my knowledge of Opera and web browsers is better than yours, and my Dad is better than yours too..." MDI != tabbed browsing. Not even close. Utterly pointless. You are wrong.

Ultimately, it's all irrelavent. So long as the browser can access a decent HTML renderer, then the rest is feature bloat. Some of it is useful (bookmarks, tabs, et c.), some of it tosh (the awsome bar). They are all free, pick one you like and go with it.

Re: @ Joe21's continued ignorance

"No not useful at all to compare two documents side by side if you wish. Maybe its just the way I work that makes being able to see things next to each other without having to constantly click to switch between them and memorize the exact layout that isn't useful."

I would say, for the average user, comparing the appearance of two websites at the same time is not of key importance, hence why, in your own words, Opera remains the only browser to do this. Tabs on the other hand have been copied by almost every browser, including Opera - it's a mainstream feature that nearly everyone finds useful.

"Please explain how an MDI interface, as available in the first private Opera version and publicly from version 2, does not allow you to open many pages within the same window."

For someone that's quick to accuse others of failing to read, you're doing a damn fine job of it yourself. I never said that Opera couldn't display many pages in the same window, I said that the addition of tabs, which Opera did NOT introduce first, made that functionality useful.

"...around the same time that Opera had the equivalent."

But not first, which is kind of critically important when attributing originality, wouldn't you say? That was the only reason why I responded to KTguju's posting and it remains a mystery to me as to why you're continuing the argument.

@ Mac Phreak and AC

Age is irrelevant to correcting others' ignorant mistakes, but OK I'll go with the mine is bigger than yours then.

You're right, MDI is not the same as tabbed browsing, I never claimed it was or do you have the same issue with reading as Joe21. It does more than tabbed browsing, including the ability to select which page you want to have focus within the parent window, and Opera actually had to hide features, that you can fortunately re-enable, to get the TDI that is the current default. So MDI gives the most important feature of tabbed browsing, and was available before any of the browsers or browser skins that Joe21 mentions, what is wrong about that statement ? Of course others dumbed down the MDI and called it tabbed browsing before Opera did, that I won't dispute.

And if you have to have bloat, then why not choose the bloat that does it best with the smallest footprint. IME that is Opera, YMMV. By the way is it still bloat if a feature is included by default, in a smaller download and memory footprint than a competitor's product that then requires installation of third party add-ons, more download, more memory, to get the same functionality ?

No need for any apology for being wrong or thanks for my corrections from you or Joe21, just be sure to get your facts right before you post next time.

And AC, way to go picking up and deriding my typo, almost half an hour after my own posted about it appeared, I would be ashamed to put my name to that sort of post as well. Well goes to show that Opera isn't perfect, the spell checker is good, just need the grammar checker now.